about me

I’m a nature photographer based in Bethesda, Maryland (USA) although I was born and raised in New York City. In my early teens my parents sent me to a camp along the Housatonic River in northwestern Connecticut where I was introduced to the beauty, mystery, and magic of the natural world. After several summers as a student, I became an instructor: I taught classes in backpacking, trail-craft, woodcraft, and wilderness survival. During the rest of the year, I attended New York City's High School for Music and Art where I majored in art. In college, I received undergraduate and graduate degrees in ecology and natural resource management.

 

For more than 45 years I've worked as a biologist and specialized in protecting endangered species. My travels and my work have taken me to the forests of the northeastern U.S.; the tundra of arctic Alaska and Canada; the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest; the deserts of the southwest; the islands of Hawaii; and the vast marshes of the Everglades. I have worked with species ranging from coral to blue whales. Without closing my eyes, I can return to the ancient pine forests of New England, the Adirondacks, and the Pacific Northwest; I can recall wood thrush filling a forest with their song; I can recall the song of bowhead whales echoing from beneath the waves of the Arctic Ocean while the sky above me is filled a breath-taking display of northern lights; I can revisit wolves howling across Arctic tundra or in the forests of the Great Lakes; I can hear the chatter of the Black-capped Chickadees that helped me survive a terrible winter storm in New York’s Adirondack Mountains.

 

All of my experiences with the natural world influence me when I raise a camera to my eyes. When I photograph birds or other wildlife, I see them as intimate strangers whose beauty, wildness, and character I want to capture and preserve. When I photograph a landscape, I try to capture the beauty and mystery that have filled me with awe for most of my life.

 

You can decide how well I’ve done.

 

Craig (C.E.) Johnson